Hip-Hop Chess Federation Lands Community Grant

While many of the country’s educational programs are seeing funding cuts, in light of the recession, the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) has received a community grant.

According to ThugLifeArmy, the unique project, focused on outreach of underserved communities, was chosen by the Mitchell Kapor Foundation for funding.

“This community grant will allow us to take our first steps toward making this a coast-to-coast teaching/learning community,” said the HHCF’s Founder Adisa Banjoko. “If we are going to promote unity and non-violence in our schools and communities, we need to bring educators together to build a playbook of classroom strategies.”

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation is a non-profit organization that fuses music, chess and martial arts together to promote unity, strategy and non-violence.
Most recently, the HHCF launched a “Life Strategies” pilot program at John O’Connell High School in San Francisco, California, and the Ryan Academy High School in Norfolk, Virginia.

“We work to ensure fairness and equity, particularly for low-income communities of color,” said Mitchell Kapor Foundation Director, Cedric Brown. “We support organizations and activism that illuminate and mitigate the conditions and dynamics of inequality which particularly impact vulnerable communities.”

Since the launch of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, the organization has hosted celebrity chess events for youth to share the benefits of incorporating chess tactics into their personal journey.